Hey Mike,
With a cordless 18V Sawzall and a new 14tpi, 4" blade - about 20 seconds to cut through each shell. Even a good hacksaw blade (I like Lenox blades) handheld wouldn't take too long. I lowered the tongue of the trailer so I had room to work. And, my Sawzall pivots allowing the handle to rotate into a pistol grip which afforded room on the rudder end. I also soaked them good in PB blaster for several hours. Once I cut through them, I pushed them out easily with a screwdriver.
The XPC bearings were a pretty snug fit. I froze them, heated the strut just a little and still had to work them in with threaded rod as a press. Only about 1/4 inch of the bearing would start with hand pressure. I sprayed them with water to help them slide in. I read where folks had used soapy water, but I didn't want any risk of them moving once in place. They are amazingly 'slick' feeling when the prop shaft is in there.
Pressure washing the house, and now getting ready for a cookout have put things on hold until tomorrow.....

With 60 hour work weeks and my daughter's HS graduation - my project took longer than I'd planned, but it turned out great. I secured the aluminum stuffing box to the hull with G-Flex. I made a peanut butter consistency paste with thickener to bed the box to the hull, and before it had set, I then applied strips of mat around the perimeter then covered the entire box with a layer of mat - this was all covered with standard G-Flex. I talked to West Systems Tech support about what product to use, etc. They are great, really know their stuff. I installed a new shaft log (hose). My packing is the Gore stuff just installed last year, so I didn't replace - easy enough to do later if needed but I don't think it will be. The alignment was dead on as before. The prop spins really easily. It did before but now it's crazy easy.
Bottom line, due to the nature of a non-mechanical fastening between the aluminum stuffing box and a fiberglass hull and given there will be some 'impact' etc from general use or rough water - I suspect many boats of this vintage will develop leaks around here. If you have an '80's era boat and the bilge stays wet, and you've check the other likely culprits (rub rail, exhaust, etc.) look for pin hole sized water droplets around this area. I'm not going to paint my repair, as it's easier to see of something is going on through the resin.
Installed new hoses, pulled her out of garage - hit the started and fired right up! Sometimes old-school technology just works

so, you left the nut on the shaft, put a socket in between the 2. used the threaded rod to pull the couplings together, and since the shaft is held stationary by the socket, the coupling was pulled from the shaft by the threaded rod. did I get it right?